Where technology enables knowledge The National ICT Research Centre Technology Supported Learning: A Way Forward? John ODonoghue Senior Research Fellow

Where technology enables knowledge

The National ICT Research Centre

Technology Supported Learning: A Way

Forward?

John O’Donoghue Senior Research Fellow

National ICT Research Centre

Where technology enables knowledge(c) 2002 National ICT Research Centre. All rights reserved. 2

Virtual Education and Lifelong Learning are not new phenomena!

……this I conceive to be the advantage of a seat of universal learning, considered as a place of education. An assemblage of learned men, zealous for their own sciences, and rivals of each others, are brought, by familiar intercourse and for the sake of intellectual peace, to adjust together the claims and relations of their respective subjects of investigation. They learn to respect, to consult, to aid each other. Thus is created a pure and clear atmosphere of thought, which the student also breathes, though in his own case he only pursues a few sciences out of the multitude. He profits by an intellectual tradition, which is independent of particular teachers, which guides him in his choice of subjects. . . . He apprehends the great outlines of knowledge, the principles on which it rests, the scale of its parts. . . . Hence it is that his education is called "liberal." A habit of mind is formed which lasts through life, of which the attributes are freedom, equitableness, calmness, moderation, and wisdom….

John Henry ‘Cardinal’ Newman circa 1850


PoliticalEducation top priority in UK, Europe & US Recognition that time spent on education must increase

EconomicKnowledge economy Raise standards Close skill gap to ensure competitiveness

SocialExpectations of anywhere/anytime Expectations of parents

TechnologyDemand for bandwidth by internet users

Background


Benefits of E-Learning

• Liberation of the students from regimented conduct of traditional universities

• “In-time learning” allows the curriculum to become more fluent to suit the needs of the learners

• Shift from the traditional “print culture” to a more sensory culture

• ……………….


Conventional Instructional Delivery Versus E-Learning Conventional Instructional Delivery E-Learning Students physically come to learning sites (campuses).

Students participate at locations remote from the instructor.

Students take classes at time predetermined by the institution.

Learner determines when to access institution based on individual needs.

Single college or university provides all instructional and student services needed by students.

Educational services are unbundled, with different providers developing course materials, delivering instruction, evaluating students, awarding credentials, providing access to information, and offering various student services.

Student is affiliated with one institution at a time.

Learners are concurrently associated with multiple providers and modes of instruction.

Learning objectives are specified by the institution.

Learners shop for opportunities that fit their specific needs.

Terms of relationship with students are determined by the institution (for example, time and place of instruction, sequences of courses, terms of admission).

Students design their own programme with regard to content, length, structure, and so forth.

Programme completion is defined by the institution in terms of credit hours earned.

Programme completion is defined by knowledge gained and skills mastered.

Educause, 2000


Paradigmatic Shifts

• New emphasis on social contexts for learning

• Learning occurs outside the classroom environment

• Removal of traditional boundaries to learning


Convergence of MediaPrint Film and video

Data

Digital Digital storagestorage

Broadcast


Cable TV

Broadcast

Convergence of NetworksLAN

Telephony

Full-servicenetwork


Current network and servicesCable started with better TV reception, and…

grew through new forms of TV programming


Future network and services

EducationEducation

ShoppingShopping

DirectoriesDirectories

Government

GamesGames

Interactive Television will start with basic services, and…….

Health

InternetInternetEmail

TrainingTraining

LegalLegal

Financial servicesFinancial services

Will grow with new forms of TV programming


CommunicationEducation Information Home Services Entertainment

I wantInformation based

services at my fingertips!

Paradigm shifts: Delivery


The Internet's pace of adoption eclipses all other technologies

• Radio was in existence 38 years before 50 million people tuned in

• TV took 13 years to reach that benchmark• Sixteen years after the first PC kit came out, 50

million people were using one• Once it was opened to the general public, the

Internet crossed that line in four years!

quoted from the US Department report “The Emerging Digital Economy”


Learner

Friends

Multimedia Resources

Other Learners

Instructor

Interactive Learning Model


What are we asking of the teacher resource?

We need to be clear: in calling for teachers to "integrate technology into their classrooms" we are actually asking for the biggest change in educational practice in the last

200 years. Not surprising, then, that acting on that call is so difficult, so painful, so challenging. So be it! As teachers,

we are in the education business because we have a passion to help children learn, to help children develop into responsible, productive members of our democratic

community. We are, therefore by definition, up to the challenge!


Paradigm shifts: Learning

EDUCATION TRAINING WORK RETIREMENT

The traditional lifestyle pattern

The new lifelong learning patternEDUCATION

TRAINING

WORK

LEISURE/RETIREMENT


Lipstick on a bullfrog

Cosmetic change does not/ will not

work


• The chalkboard replaced the slate;• the whiteboard replaced the

chalkboard;• the OHP replaced the whiteboard;• software (Microsoft PowerPoint

et al) replaced the OHP

The dilemma In education we are looking for

innovation without change


21st century adults

20th century teachers

19th century classrooms

being taught by

in


Crisis in education and trainingGlobal de-coupling of education and training systems from societyPace of social and cultural change

enormously increasedEducational systems have remained

what they were

The curre

nt syst

ems a

re sys

tems

designed

for a

socie

ty which

is no

longer the s

ociety

of today!


Crisis in education and training

Educational stagnation reflected in:Types of content and subjects

With minor exceptionsMethods of Teaching & Learning

Direct contact, lectures, books, written & oral examinations

Physical & organisational conditionsBuildings, classrooms, administrative

structures


Crisis in education and training

Changes in society reflected in:the familythe workplacethe economyleisure time and pursuitspolitics


We need to re-engineer?

• The educational infrastructure

• The curriculum

• The teaching profession

Need to

put the l

earner

at the h

eart o

f educat

ion


Primary Education Secondary EducationFurther Education

CommunityLearnDirect (UfI)

University Education


Networked Learning Communities

Home

Office

Library

CommunityLeisure

School/College School/

College

Home

Office

Library

Leisure

Community

TODAY FUTURE

Connected


The connected society• The connected student

• Guided access to resources • Individualised learning path• Enriched environment • Prepared for 21st century workforce

• The connected educator • Shares best practices • New tools for teaching • Immediate, ongoing assessment

• The connected parent • More involved with student’s learning • More informed of school activities • Increased communications with teachers


Considerations

• changing the instructor role from lecturer to facilitator or leader

• guiding students through necessary information in a non-linear, hyper-linked environment

• building a sense of ‘classroom community’ and enhancing learning


• being able to discover knowledge for oneself • long term retention of knowledge• being able to perceive relations between old and new

knowledge• being able to create new knowledge• being able to apply knowledge to solving problems• being able to communicate one's knowledge to others• wanting to know more

Nightingale and O’Neil, 1994

Indicators of high quality learning having taken place are:


But……

• the learner is ready to meet the demands of the learning task(s)

• there is a reason for learning (acceptable reason, to the student)

• the learner is active during learning

• adequate support is provided by the environment in which that learning occurs


ICT as a tool (bad news)

Clumsily handled, ICT can easily fall foul of basic principles. As “ICT in Schools” points out with regard to KS2:

“While pupils are becoming more competent at searching for information, they find it difficult to recognise what is important and then synthesise what they have found (p.8)”


Skills for the Future?

• Focus on self-managed learning• Blurring of artistic/technical/scientific/personal• More languages• Cultural sensitivity• Media awareness• Science and Technology awareness/confidence• Team-working• Creativity/innovation• Learning/ Love to learn


Skills for the Future?

• Reading,Writing and Arithmetic• Listening, Speaking, Thinking• Time and Project management• Communication skills• Design and Presentation• Problem identification, definition and solving• Personal knowledge


A Learning Agenda

• determine the conditions under which computer-mediated-communication increases or decreases student staff communications, and what influence it has on the quality of the communications;

• establish preferences among different categories of students for on-campus, off-campus and mixed mode study; and

• identify which particular teaching contexts and domains of knowledge are suited to and enhanced by various applications of technology

Technology has the potential to contribute to new operational paradigms which will inevitably include new approaches to teaching and learning, but there is a need to:

M. Gosper, B. Hesketh, J Andrews and M Sabaz, 1996


Summary….• A shift from faculty-centred to learner-centred institutions• Affordability• Lifelong learning• A seamless web• Asynchronous (anytime, anyplace) learning• Interactive and collaborative learning• Diversity• Widening access• Tackling exclusion• Tackling disabilitiesEducause, 1999


Passion


“Wisdom is not a product of schooling, but of the lifelong

attempt to acquire it”

Thank YouJohn O’Donoghue

[email protected]://www.learninglab.org.uk

Documents

Where technology enables knowledge The National ICT Research Centre Technology Supported Learning: A Way Forward? John ODonoghue Senior Research Fellow